Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller :: essays research papers

Dangerous Ground of IllusionRelations between catchs and the young generation have been and continue to be an important theme for mixed literary genres (King Lear, Shakespeare Fathers and Sons, Turgenev). For many famous writers the significance of fathers influence on their children forms a subject of authorityicular interest. . In the play, Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller shows in a very striking manner that the fathers influence can be either positive or fatal. The dispiriting story of the three generations of the Lomans family contrasts with the contented account of the life of their neighbors, Charley and his son Bernard.The author details father-and-son relations in the Lomans family over a long period of time. He effortlessly demonstrates that a younger generation both inherits the fathers way of life and assimilates his best or worst features. He tells us almost nothing about Willy Lomans, the important characters, father. All we know is that he played a flute. Also he was a handy man, because he invented a gadget to make flutes. He was making and selling flutes, traveling across the country in a wagon. He took his family with him wherever he went. When Willy was about four years old, his father went to Alaska seeking to earn a fortune and disappeared amidst Alaskas expanses. though the period when his sons Ben and Willy were with him was short, it odd an indelible impression on the boys memory. Later, each of them inherited a part of this way of life the older son Ben got a passion for calamity and travel, and the younger son Willy got a profession of salesmen and an interest to work with wood.Though the fathers influence was quite indirect he mostly figured in their afterglow and rather idealistic fancies, both of them became decent and hard-working people. At the age of septetteen, Ben left(a) his home for Alaska, but soon found himself in Africa and at twenty-one he was already rich. He spent the rest of his life in Africa where he died . He was a wealthy, influential and successful man and fathered seven children. He preferred to be brutal but effective, as befits the jungles of life. On one of his brief visits to Willys home he admonished Biff, his nephew "Never fight just with a stranger, boy. Youll never get out of the jungle that way." Unlike his elder brother, Willy did not have enough strength to be aggressive and to school advantage of the opportunities offered by life.